Forum:Character Infobox
* Hi, I was wondering whether anyone else thinks that the character infobox needs a rework. For instance, the header of the infobox says "character", but it seems to me to be pretty obvious when an article's about a character. Also, are things such as "hair color", "eye color" really needed? I've also added "born" and "died" to the infobox thinking that it may be a good idea for those we know when they're born/died, and would probably mean that "home town" can be combined with "born". The main thing that is annoying me is the character title, and also the center alignment of the left-hand column. Just wondering what everyone else thought, and if there are similar concerns, if we should make a new template. Thanks, 03:18, 11 March 2009 (UTC) *The character infobox could be reworked. In a way the currents structure reminds of Bertillion's Antropometric System of Identification. I agree the format should be revised. I would argue that the following should be kept: #Name #Gender #Rank #Affiliation #Actor #First Appearance #Last appearance I also think that a line should be added to describe the character's status (i.e. fate in the series) For example in the case of Jenny Shepard *Jennifer "Jenny" Shepard *Female *Director NCIS *NIS, NCIS *Murdered *Shot and Killed in the line of duty. *Lauren Holly *Kill Ari Part One *Judgment Day Part One NJZimmermann 22:27, 11 March 2009 (UTC) ** I totally agree with the ones that you have that should be kept, though I would also argue for job (Profession:) as there are some characters who don't have a rank or any real affiliation, and can be used in place of or with rank (eg. for Abby Sciuto, Forensic Scientist is hardly a rank). In terms of the overall formatting for the template, I was also thinking of adding extra lines (such as "Biographical information", "Physical Description" and "Chronological and political information" in Wookieepedia's Jedi character infobox). This would be able to separate "in-universe" information from "real world" information such as "actor" and first and last appearance. 01:24, 12 March 2009 (UTC) Nighthawk Leader, You maade an excellent case for keeping "Profession" I concur with you reasoning. It is an excellent point. I also like your idea on formattingNJZimmermann 02:36, 12 March 2009 (UTC) *I also agree with Hawk's ideas for the userbox. Could you come up with a preview of the finished product? 21:15, 16 March 2009 (UTC) ** Sure- I'll get started and see how it goes :) 06:07, 17 March 2009 (UTC) Well, this is a rought draft of what I could come up with- most of the code was taken from another infobox I previously partially redesigned. The background colors are the same as the previous one as the previous one since we haven't discussed a color scheme, but the colors can be changed in the infobox with Bkg1 and Bkg2. I didn't change the text color yet, and I haven't figured out how to hide the "real-world information" box yet, so it's still a work in progress. Just wanted any comments as to whether I should keep working on it, or if I should do anything differently. 06:59, 17 March 2009 (UTC) * Sorry- just realised I put "born" and "died" in the infobox- will remove these later since they haven't been suggested to be put in :) 07:00, 17 March 2009 (UTC) ** Nighthawk Leader, I have no specific objection to the inclusion of the born and died field. I am curious as to what your thoughts are regarding those two fields of information because, in terms of years of birth and death that information is lacking with regard to some of the characters such as Mike Franks, Jenny Shepard, and Ziva. NJZimmermann 17:37, 17 March 2009 (UTC) ***(Just my opinion) We probably wouldn't need a "Born" and "Died" section since dates of birth and death aren't really given in the series. If I am wrong and the info is given for someone, feel free to put it in. So, what do you think, Nighthawk Leader? [[User:General Grham|'Special Agent Grham' ]]Talk to me. 20:18, 17 March 2009 (UTC) ****There have been a few occasional approximate dates as to how old some main characters are, eg McGee was 12 sometime in 1989 according to making him born in either 1976 or 1977, Kate would have died around 2004, and I think sometimes dates of birth may be occasionally shown/read out for victims/suspects, but I'm not sure. Personally I don't mind whether this is included or not- if there is a date of birth/death, it can always be mentioned in the mainspace, just noticed that most other wikis include this in their infoboxes. , for those characters that we haven't found out their date of birth/death, the field can always be left blank, meaning that the cell isn't displayed, so there just wouldn't be a "Born:" part there at all. I'm about to remove the two fields from the infobox since it hasn't been decided, but personally I'm neutral on this one, so I don't mind which way it goes :) 00:23, 18 March 2009 (UTC) *****When you put it that way, I'm more for it. [[User:General Grham|'Special Agent Grham' ]]Talk to me. 19:48, 18 March 2009 (UTC) p.s. What is with the text? It is all shifted to the left and isn't going under the box. * Hi, thought I'd get back to talking about this since the Legend wiki's now in place :) Maybe we should do a quick informal vote on the born/died fields just to sort out whether they should be included or not? I guess we can always include them later if needed, just thought we should sort it out now. General Grham, not sure what you mean about the text being shifted to the left- if you mean the text being on the left of the infobox when it's beside it, didn't the old one do that too? 08:18, 25 March 2009 (UTC) **My informal vote would be a vote in favor of making the fields optional. On the subject of born and died fields, I would suggest that rheir inclusion remain optional since, that information has not been given with any consistency. NJZimmermann 18:04, 25 March 2009 (UTC) * OK, to sum up, does anyone have a problem with: ** The new design/colors of the infobox ** Using the following fields, all optional (if nothing is entered into the row of the infobox, the row will not displayed): *** Name *** Born *** Died *** Profession *** Affiliation *** Rank *** Gender *** Actor *** First Appearance *** Last Appearance Just want to sum this up so that we can get the implementation underway. Thanks, 01:18, 8 April 2009 (UTC) * If there are no objections or comments about this it will be implemented tomorrow. 07:32, 16 April 2009 (UTC) **I have no objections, and no comments except to say that it is an excellent final product NJZimmermann 20:18, 16 April 2009 (UTC) *** Well, it's up and running and hopefully working for everyone else- looks ok to me. Only problem is hiding the "real-world information" row- I'm still working on that and will hopefully have it fixed soon :) 08:43, 17 April 2009 (UTC) **** I now have it so that there is a "hider" section, where if anything is added after "hider=", the row is hidden. Would ideally like this to end up being only so that a "1" or "yes" will do this, so will work on this later 09:16, 17 April 2009 (UTC)